Sailing

Experiences while sailing

New York to Annapolis

Nov 11th, 2022 James Destinations, Sailing

Timing the currents carefully, our next chapter started by navigating our way through the one and only New York City. From Port Washington, we headed through Hell Gate, and down the East River, before popping out by the Statue Of Liberty.

Sailing Cape Cod and the Sound

Oct 25th, 2022 Jayne Destinations, Sailing, Food & Drink

We spent a few days in Plymouth reprovisioning, and being what most visitors are - a tourist. A tour of the reconstructed Mayflower mark II gave visitors a flavor of what it must have been like for the first pilgrims to sail from England to the New World in 1620. With 132 passengers and crew on board, plus various domestic animals and cattle, it must have made those 10 weeks at sea fly by!

Back "Up" from Maine

Oct 14th, 2022 James Destinations, Sailing

Bar Harbor proved to be our most easterly destination. While we had teased ourselves with the idea of heading a little further on towards Canada, it was mid-August, and the weather seemed to be changing. We decided to start heading south towards New York, where we needed to be by September.

Peaceful Penobscot Bay

Aug 14th, 2022 Jayne Destinations, Sailing, Food & Drink

There’s a storm approaching! Our PredictWind app was forecasting gusts of 35 knots in the Penobscot Bay area of Maine. With this info, we decided this would be a good time to seek out a protective hurricane hole and sit it out for a few days. The place we had in mind was beautiful - yet remote - Seal Bay, which was accessed via a meandering channel on the east side of Vinalhaven Island.

Portland to Hurricane Island

Aug 5th, 2022 James Destinations, Sailing

After several weeks of anchoring, we needed to come into a marina in Portland to pick up some items and fix a few things before swinging east towards Penobscot Bay, and into ever more beautiful terrain.

Port(smouth) to Port(land)

Jul 22nd, 2022 James Destinations, Sailing

After a few days in lovely New Castle and Portsmouth, it was time to head north into Maine. We were doing this route the slow way, looking for fun little places along the way - and hoping for fun day-sail blasts down the coast.

MA to NH via Witches and Lighthouses

Jul 3rd, 2022 Jayne Destinations, Sailing

Farewell Boston! It was fun while it lasted, but we were itching to spread our sail wings and ultimately head down to Maine as locals say, meaning downwind sailing. Our plan was to hop along the coast for reasonably short day sails from 12 to 25 miles a time. This stretch of the coastline from Boston, Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire would have us stopping off for the night at Salem, Gloucester and Rockport.

Scout's Boston Layover

Jun 22nd, 2022 Jayne Destinations, Sailing

Now that Scout was safely docked in Boston, the only thing missing from her interior was us. Once jobs, graduations and homes were dealt with, we promptly took the red-eye from the west to east coast of the US. In what we hope will be the last of the large luggage for a while, we found not one but three of those over-rated inflatable travel neck pillows. I already have a purge pile as I practice living minimally.

Newport to Boston

Jun 16th, 2022 James Sailing

With Scout’s sails installed after her trip across the Atlantic, it was time to take her up from Newport towards Boston. After a few sea trials and motor-sailing across the English Channel, this was really the first major sail of her life!

Introducing... Scoot!

Jun 10th, 2022 James Sailing

Having settled onto a mooring ball in Newport, the next job was to get the sails up on Scout, and test out her new dinghy, Scoot.

Coming to America

Jun 3rd, 2022 James Sailing

Scout took just ten days to make it across the Atlantic and arrived very safely (and still quite clean!) in Newport, Rhode Island.

Next Stop: Newport

May 21st, 2022 James Sailing

Many weeks later than expected, Scout finally hitches a lift in Southampton - and starts her 10-day trip across the Atlantic to Newport, Rhode Island.

Scout Sets Sail for Southampton

Apr 10th, 2022 Jayne Sailing

After a winter of hanging out on the hard at the Garcia yard, it was time to get Scout’s hull wet again. At 4:45am on March 16th, Scout finally said farewell to France, and ventured out into darkness towards England and across the Channel.

Scout's Sea Trial & A Celebratory Local Cocktail

Oct 12th, 2021 Jayne Sailing, Food & Drink

Warning - this post starts heavy on the sail-speak, but finishes light with a local, celebratory brew. As part of the handover of Scout, team Garcia is expected to test Scout’s sailing performance with the many different sailing manoeuvres. On day three of our handover we tagged along with Garcia for the sea trial and combined it with our own test sail in the sailing playground outside of Cherbourg.